Writing guide for a free-form document editor

Abstract

Displaying a writing guide for a free-form document editor by detecting electronic ink, classifying the detected ink as corresponding to handwriting or a drawing, and displaying a handwriting guide or a drawing guide in response to classifying the detected ink as handwriting or a drawing, respectively. The writing guides can provide feedback regarding the classification of the detected ink and can be resized as additional ink is detected. The handwriting guide can comprise a writing area, writing guide portion, bullet guide, indent marker, character notches, gesture guide, or sacrificial guide to create meaningful structure within an outline object of an electronic document.

Description

RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] This patent application is related to the following co-pending, non-provisional patent applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 852,799 filed on May 11, 2001, entitled “Serial Storage of Ink and Its Properties” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 430,150 filed on Oct. 29, 1999, entitled “Universal File Format for Digital Rich Ink Data.” Both related applications are assigned to the Microsoft Corporation. [0002] This patent application also is related to the following non-provisional patent applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Method and System for Editing Electronic Ink,” having attorney docket number 06576.105074; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Method and System for Selecting Objects on a Display Device,” having attorney docket number 06576.105075; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Resolving Document Object Collisions,” having attorney docket number 06576.105076; U.S. pa...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The writing guide enhances handwriting recognition accuracy, maintains structured formatting, and enables seamless conversion and editing of electronic documents, improving user interaction and compatibility with various applications.

Problems solved by technology

One of the limitations with handwritten work is that it is not easily manipulated or transferred to other contexts.

One of the limitations with conventional GUI systems is that a user must generally type the text they are entering into the personal computer using the keyboard.

Entering text using a keyboard can be slower and more cumbersome than handwriting.

Although recent advances have been made in reducing the size of personal computers, they are still not as portable and easily accessible as traditional pen and paper.

However, physical ink on paper can have significant amounts of information not captured by the electronic collection of coordinates and connecting line segments.

In spite of the advances in electronic tablets and electronic ink, there are still several limitations with the performance of such electronic handwriting devices.

For example, conventional free-form document editors cannot recognize document structure as the user inputs ink strokes on the tablet.

Accordingly, any indented formatting provided by the user for the ink strokes is lost on conversion to text.

Another problem with conventional free-form document editors is the blind conversion of ink to text.

However, that method merely provides electronic text without linking the text throughout the electronic document.

Accordingly, the user cannot revise and edit the electronic text when it is converted in that manner.

Additionally, the text cannot always be exported to other application programs such as a word processor application program.

Another problem with conventional free-form document editors is a lack of feedback regarding the type of ink input by the user.

However, the editor cannot indicate the classification to the user.

By that time, many lines of ink may be erroneously classified, causing excess work by the user to correct the formatting.

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